Secure Encryption of Data Using Partial-Key Cryptography
AssigneeCrown Sterling Limited, LLC
InventorRobert Edward Grant
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for securing encrypted data wherein a sending computer encrypts data to be transmitted with an encryption key. The encryption key itself is not sent, but can be derived from a second key and third key. The second key is modified such that an incomplete portion of the second key is sent along with the message to a recipient computer. The third key is sent separately to the recipient computer. The recipient computer obtains the remainder of the second key, reconstructs the complete second key and then uses it with the third key to derive a decryption key to decrypt the message.
Claims10
A method of securing encrypted data, comprising:
- encrypting, by a sending computing device, a message to be sent using a first cryptographic key;
- transmitting, by the sending computing device and to a recipient computing device, the encrypted message and an incomplete version of a second cryptographic key, wherein the incomplete version of the second cryptographic key comprises a version of the second cryptographic key with missing interim digits;
- transmitting, by the sending computing device, and via a separate transmission, a third cryptographic key;
- accessing, by the recipient computing device, a service to obtain a remainder of the second cryptographic key;
- combining, by the recipient computing device, the incomplete version of the second cryptographic key with the remainder of the second cryptographic key to obtain a complete second cryptographic key;
- deriving, by the recipient computing device, a decryption key based on the complete second cryptographic key and the third cryptographic key;
- and
- decrypting, by the recipient computing device using the decryption key, the encrypted message.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.